We’re now dividing Guilhem’s toys into free play (most of them) and structured play (a few nice games), in which we play with him and try and instill the concepts of taking turns, waiting, etc. But on the whole, I think we’re on the right, playful side of this debate:

Guilhem will often say “X est parti” (X has gone away) to talk about someone he’s seen recently and is no longer there. It’s not a sad thing – he quite enjoys enumerating the people that he’s seen, but last week he said to Clo: “Johann est parti” (Johann has gone away). Johann was the little boy with whom Guilhem was guarded from four months to two years, but he and his family moved to the US at the end of October. From his tone, which was more muted than usual, Clo inferred that Guilhem was beginning to understand that Johann was indeed gone, and wasn’t coming back